The Color of Transcendence: Whiteness, Sovereignty, and the Theologico-Political
This essay reads Jacques Derrida's analysis of the death penalty - which he interprets as the most fundamental instantiation of sovereign, theologico-political power over life and death - in relation to the whiteness that structures US carcerality. Elaborating upon Derrida's conception o...
| Published in: | Political theology |
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| Main Author: | |
| Format: | Electronic Review |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Routledge, Taylor and Francis Group
[2018]
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| In: |
Political theology
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| Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains: | B
Derrida, Jacques 1930-2004
/ Foucault, Michel 1926-1984
/ Death penalty
/ Prison
/ Weißsein
/ Transcendence
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| RelBib Classification: | NBE Anthropology VA Philosophy |
| Further subjects: | B
Death Penalty
B Sovereignty B Book review B Transcendence B Derrida B carceral B theologico-political B Foucault B Whiteness |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (Verlag) |
| Summary: | This essay reads Jacques Derrida's analysis of the death penalty - which he interprets as the most fundamental instantiation of sovereign, theologico-political power over life and death - in relation to the whiteness that structures US carcerality. Elaborating upon Derrida's conception of the theologico-political, I theorize whiteness as a mode of theologico-political transcendence: whiteness both comes to be conceptually via theological reasoning and materially mimics aspects of the worldordering traits of divine power. The world that whiteness ultimately orders is a carceral one that secures its supremacy by way of mechanisms - death penalties - of captivity, dispossession, and control. Extending Derrida's theorization beyond capital punishment and its strictly sovereign configurations, I suggest that carceral death penalties more broadly conceived should be understood not just as a matter of isolatable sovereign decision on life and death but as the (white) power to arrange the world in ways that determine proximity to life and death. |
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| Item Description: | Das gedruckte Heft ist als Doppelheft erschienen: "Volume 19 Numbers 1-2 February-March 2018" |
| ISSN: | 1743-1719 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Political theology
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1080/1462317X.2018.1435607 |